Reports of 4 dead in Georgia high school shooting, 1 person in custody

At least four people were killed in a shooting at a high school in Georgia on Wednesday, CNN reported.

In addition to the four dead, dozens more people were injured in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, CNN reported, citing unnamed law enforcement officials briefed on the incident. Not all of the injuries appeared to be gunshot wounds, but there were also people who were injured while fleeing.

A suspect is in custody, the Barrow County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

“What we see behind us today is something evil,” Sheriff Jud Smith said during a brief press conference on school grounds.

Smith would not confirm that anyone was killed, saying only that there were “several injuries” in the shooting.

The incident appeared to be under control and students were released around noon, a Barrow County Schools spokesman said.

Families drive to Apalachee High School to pick up students following a fatal shooting on September 4, 2024 in Winder, Georgia.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images North America

ABC News quoted a witness, student Sergio Caldera, who said he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots. Caldera, 17, told ABC his teacher opened the door and another teacher ran.

to tell her to close the door “because there’s a shooter there.”

As students and teachers crowded into the classroom, someone pounded on his classroom door and shouted several times for him to open it. When the knocking stopped, Caldera heard more gunshots and screams. He said his class was later evacuated to the school's football field.

Live aerial footage on television showed several ambulances in front of the high school.

CNN said it saw a patient being loaded into a rescue helicopter that landed at the school.

The sheriff's office said: “Multiple law enforcement and fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school due to a reported shooting.”

Students wait to be picked up by their parents following a shooting at Apalachee High School on September 4, 2024 in Winder, Georgia.
Photo: AFP/Getty Images North America

The FBI's Atlanta field office sent agents to the high school to assist local law enforcement, said Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting “and that his administration will continue to coordinate with federal, state and local authorities as we receive more information.”

There have been hundreds of school and university shootings in the United States over the past two decades, the worst of which left more than 30 people dead at Virginia Tech in 2007. The massacre sparked heated debates about U.S. gun laws and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the right to “keep and bear arms.”

– Reuters